How-to

I have lately been doing some experiments with
Wikidata. I did some
writing for my Spanish
blog, and
I've also uploaded this github
repo an R Markdown file with
some test I've made. While this data access method looks promising, it is
still very incomplete to be used except for anything but toy models.

Privacy

Before cell phones, pagers were the way to communicate on the go. At
first, they were almost a status symbol. Eventually, they became the mark of
someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t carry a cell phone. However, apparently,
there are still some users that clutch their pagers with a death grip,
including medical professionals. In an art project called HolyPager, Brannon
Dorsey intercepted all the pager messages in a city and printed them on a
few old-style roll printers.

The blistering growth has prompted new criticism from theaters and studio
owners — namely that MoviePass will never be able to make money by charging
$9.95 a month when a single ticket can cost almost twice that amount. They
say that will cause MoviePass to either raise prices or go out of business,
disappointing audiences and ultimately hurting the fragile multiplex
business.

Mr. Lowe, who previously sparred with studios as president of Redbox, the
kiosk company that rents DVDs for $1 a day, believes that ticketing can at
least be a break-even business for MoviePass. The real treasure in this
venture, he contends, is the trove of data about consumer tastes and habits
that MoviePass can collect. It hopes to sell that data to studio marketers.

Mr. Farnsworth said, “When you apply computer science and machine learning
to an industry that we believe has lacked significant innovation, useful
patterns start to emerge.” If MoviePass gets big enough, it could try to
demand that chain theaters sell tickets at a discount or share a slice of
their concession revenue.

At Boston’s Logan International Airport, travelers at one international
boarding gate will be surprised that they are being told to stop before what
looks like a sophisticated camera. But it’s more than just a camera—the
device compares each traveler’s face to a Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) biometric database to verify her identity and flags as many as 1 in 25
travelers for further scrutiny. These face scans have been deployed at eight
other airports, too. In Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City,
Houston, and Washington, D.C., travelers departing on certain international
flights have their faces scanned by DHS. If DHS’ current plans are executed,
every traveler flying overseas, American and foreign national alike, will
soon be subject to a face recognition scan as part of this “biometric exit”
program.

These lenders originally emerged as a solution to that problem: how to
lend to people with no credit history. By most estimates, that could total
about one billion people.

China turned to the fast-moving technology sector. Today, thousands of
Chinese apps offer cash or financing, often within seconds, based on a wide
array of sometimes deeply personal information. China’s biggest internet
companies and financial names are funding the effort.